Local Attorneys Pitch System Fix

April 29, 2007
Muskegon Chronicle
By John S. Hausman

Supporters of a revamped public defender system for Muskegon County acknowledge it won't be cheap.

But they say it's necessary.

Two Muskegon trial lawyers are floating one possible alternative -- perhaps the first in decades.

Attorneys R. Curtis Mabbitt and Michael G. Walsh propose to form a new firm called Defenders Michigan PLC that would do all public defender work, or at least the work for circuit and district courts.

The proposal would increase the county's costs by some $1 million per year.

Mabbitt floated a similar proposal in letters to county commissioners and judges last September. A second try came with a new round of letters sent out April 20.

Mabbitt and Walsh contend the county's existing system is so under-funded it fails to meet constitutional standards. That's a contention shared by the American Civil Liberties Union, but disputed by many in the Muskegon County system, and one that might be decided by the lawsuit.

To replace it, Mabbitt and Walsh propose a contract with the county to do all adult criminal-defense work for $1.5 million in fiscal 2008, which starts Oct. 1. The existing 2007 contracts for circuit and district courts cost about $595,000, and Chief Public Defender Denis Potuznik wants an additional total of $25,000 next year.

Alternatively, Mabbitt and Walsh propose $2.2 million for all defender contracts, including juvenile-probate, abuse-neglect and appeals. That's approximately double the current total for Muskegon County public defender contracts.

Mabbitt and Walsh argue that the more relevant comparison is with funding for the Muskegon County Prosecutor's Office. That total is more than $2.1 million from the county, plus more than $500,000 from a variety of grants.

"Somehow the county is able to come up with the money to fund one side of the system, but we don't have the money to fund the other side of the system," Mabbitt said. "By itself that's unconstitutional."

Mabbitt and Walsh don't criticize the attorneys doing the work today. "It's not that the Potuznik firm is doing anything wrong. They're not," Walsh said. "It's the volume (of cases) that puts everybody at risk."

Both Mabbitt and Walsh have done adult criminal defense work, but neither specializes in it. Longtime attorney Mabbitt does largely personal-injury civil work. Walsh is a former Chronicle reporter who began practicing law full-time in 2001, with a general practice that focuses on family law, including a public-defender contract with Muskegon County's probate-juvenile courts.

They propose to hire and contract with other private attorneys to fill out their roster.

The attorneys propose a "well-staffed, professional, modern, fully computerized law office" at Mabbitt's and Walsh's offices, 8 W. Walton, across the street from the county jail and courthouse. The proposed contract would pay for the new firm's office space, contract administration, research resources and "direction, supervision and accountability," including annual reports to the county.

Besides attorneys, the proposal is to hire a full-time investigator, contract with translators as needed, and employ a paralegal to handle intake interviews with new clients, "to learn something about them," Walsh said. "We would want to treat these clients on the same basis as our private clients."

Once appointed, an attorney would meet his or her client -- in jail or at the office, as the case may be -- interview the client, read the police report and begin work on the case, including pursuing independent interviews of witnesses if necessary. The same public defender would stay with the client throughout the court process, something that often doesn't happen under the current system.

The intention is to limit the caseload per lawyer, improve attorney pay and monitor performance to maintain quality control.


National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL)
1660 L St., NW, 12th Floor, Washington, DC 20036
(202) 872-8600 • Fax (202) 872-8690 • assist@nacdl.org